r returning from this last
expedition, he took up his residence, and pursued the vocation of a
missionary, among the Miamis in the neighborhood of Chicago.[139-27]
While passing by water along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan towards
Michillimackinac, he entered a small river, on the 18th of May,
1675.[139-28] Having landed, he constructed an altar, performed mass,
and then retired a short distance into the wood, requesting the two men,
who had charge of his canoe, to leave him alone for half an hour. When
the time had elapsed, the men went to seek for him and found him dead.
They were greatly surprised, as they had not discovered any symptoms of
illness; but they remembered, that, when he was entering the river, he
expressed a presentiment that his voyage would end there. To this day
the river retains the name of _Marquette_. The place of his grave, near
its bank, is still pointed out to the traveller; but his remains were
removed the year after his death to Michillimackinac.[140-29]

FOOTNOTES:

[121-1] Jared Sparks was born in 1789, and was one of the most
industrious of our early historians, for he collected documents, edited
them, and wrote untiringly on American biography. Some of his work is
not considered very reliable, but he contributed a great deal of
valuable information in rather a pleasing way. This sketch of
Marquette's expedition is particularly interesting, as he followed so
closely the report of the great missionary.

[121-2] Father Marquette, the famous Jesuit explorer and missionary, was
born in France in 1637. He was sent as a missionary to Canada, and in
1668 founded the mission of Sault Sainte Marie. In 1673, when he was
ordered by Count Frontenac to join Joliet and find and explore the
Mississippi, he was in charge of a new mission at Mackinaw.

[123-3] "The joy that we felt at being selected for This Expedition
animated our Courage, and rendered the labor of paddling from morning to
night agreeable to us."--MARQUETTE.

[123-4] The wild rice people were the Menominees, who lived on the river
that now bears that name and which forms part of the boundary between
Wisconsin and Michigan. Father Marquette went out of his way to see
these friendly Indians, whose name Menominee means simply _wild rice_.

[123-5] This wild rice still grows in the streams and lakes of northern
Wisconsin and Michigan, still clogs the courses of the rivers and is
still gathered by the scattered Indians of that vic